“Hi, God.” “Hello, John.”

Communication with God is not intellectual or emotional, or even spiritual. Those things compartmentalize the actual thing — the specific and personal relationship with our creator. God blows our mind as he explains the order of the universe to us. God lifts us up, and joins us in our joy; and he sinks with us in our despair. God miraculously reveals himself to us, opening up portals between the transcendent/spiritual realm and our created universe.

That’s the construct of life with God, right?

I think I’m very right about that.

“Hi, God.” “Hello, John.” That exchange seals the deal.


http://usccb.org/bible/readings/102119.cfm
Romans 4:20-25
Luke 12:13-21


Abraham did not doubt God's promise in unbelief;
rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God
and was fully convinced that what God had promised
he was also able to do.
(Romans 4:20-21)

The loveliest idea repeated throughout scripture surely must be God’s intention to convince us of his goodness and constant presence by keeping his promises. I say, “lovely” because a promise between God and us is beautiful. His desire to make and keep promises with this one man involves all the things that we need to know about the God of Abraham. Two short verses written by Paul embark us on a path toward discovery of God that will change our nature forever.

I believe God convincing us “must be” the most lovely idea in scripture because what’s more beautiful than being courted, showered with promises, and then embraced when we accept God’s hand? Nothing!

First, of course, we must make the leap that God can have conversations with us. Then, we must be convinced. I didn’t realize the rarity of this conviction. A rather few number of people believe God holds conversational relationships with his human creation. If one doesn’t believe God can converse with us then any communication from God is impossible to recognize.

A recent Pew Research Center report calculates that 90% of US citizens believe in a higher power. Ten percent of those do not identify that power as God — any god. That leaves 80% of folks in the US who allow for a next step. That is, because 80% of folks believe in God, they’re the likely folks who might allow that we can talk to God and hear back from him. Most people agree that’s a possibility. Few are convinced.

From what I can surmise from this report many have tried to talk “with” God, not just to him. Yet, only 28% of people in the US are convinced that God listens to us and then responds in some conversational form. That’s a shameful accounting for those of us in the 28%. We belong to a remarkably low number of folks “fully convinced,” as Paul profiles Abraham above in Romans 4:20. In a raising of hands we’re in the minority. Minorities hold no sway in the public sector.

Abraham, according to Paul, was also in such a minority. Who knows in Abraham’s day how small were the numbers of folks who believed God communicated with them? God, nonetheless, empowered him with faith. So much faith, that Abraham eventually became convinced that God could fulfill his promises. He judged God capable, because God followed through.

Being empowered by faith, and then giving glory to God, requires that we have grasped a promise from God that we believe he will accomplish. That’s not a formula. That’s the construct of life with God. Am I wrong about that?

Communication with God is not intellectual or emotional, or even spiritual. Those things compartmentalize the actual thing — the specific and personal relationship with our creator. God blows our mind as he explains the order of the universe to us. God lifts us up, and joins us in our joy; and he sinks with us in our despair. God miraculously reveals himself to us, opening up portals between the transcendent/spiritual realm and our created universe. That’s the construct of life with God, right? I think I’m very right about that.

In our Judeo Christian scriptures God explains often his desire to instill faith in us. That “faith” includes our desire to know God. We desire because God attracts us to him. We don’t figure God out without God. It seems foolish to say it that way, but the reality is so important to include God in the discovery of the divine.

The instilled faith we have in God involves God’s participation inside our very being. He creates an opening in our heart and mind to know him, while still leaving us with the freedom to accept or reject him. “Hello, I’m here. What do you think?” Because God exists, in blunt language, God actually exists.

God becomes real to us, then, when we personally interact with God. That’s the only step toward conviction. Not to downplay the notion of faith, which many folks describe as believing without seeing. We see, however, in so many more ways than our eyes. We have a full compendium of senses, and yet none of those senses can truly convince us that God is real.

Emotions don’t convince us in any authentic way, either. Authentic emotions rely upon physical, sensual reality. The passion of emotional expressions will pass, just like the sensual experiences.

When emotions and their associated sensual experiences go away we are left with intellectual logic. To some God may be logical, but the conviction of God as real, actually there, does not hold up for very long intellectually either. If we’re relying upon theories and postulations, based upon some sensual and emotional experiences, we only end up with laboratory results. We’re “pretty sure,” and may have a “high percentage” of clarity. Fine.

What about the determination of God in relationship, though. Everyday, moment by moment interactions. Doesn’t that seal the deal more than a well documented report? Doesn’t our actual conversation with God mean more than a calculation about who God is?

Here’s an example of an actual conversation with God while talking with someone who has a theory about God. “Yes, all that sounds nice,” the divine communication person says. “But I’m talking to God right now. Do you have something you want me to ask him?” Now, that’s reality in your face right there.

Faith devised by us, or even trained into us, cannot convince us “fully.” A fully convinced faith demands real presence, where conviction stands upon a relationship we know is there.

“Hi, God.” “Hello, John.” That exchange seals the deal.

“God, show me you are there,” followed up by an unexplainable array of events, co-incidences, miracles, undeserved blessings, hoped for arrangements, healthy corrections, and so on, and so on. Those are the conversations between us and the divine. In fact, our “Hello, John” responses from God are almost always in those specific things where God walks with us moment by moment. It’s not his words to us but his full-blown communicative presence.

We can’t be promised something by God without engaging in a conversation. We must get “to” and then become involved “in” a conversation with God in order to understand what he is promising us.

Divine conversations include scripture, in my discussion here, but not only scripture. Any form of head-to-head and heart-to-heart dialogue with God describes the conversational relationship I’m talking about.

Conversing with God is both absurd and alarming. Absurd, because we learn to avoid unseeable, irrational things by condemning them as unreasonable and inappropriate. We find it hard to believe. Alarming, because, well, we’re actually conversing with the God of the universe! That’s a frightening possibility.

That’s why Abraham appropriately gave glory to God. He skipped the absurdity of God talking to him and got over being alarmed that God wanted something for him to do. Abraham experienced God’s love for him in several strange and wonderful ways. This must be our nature following God’s loving presence. Our nature can no longer accept skepticism as our go-to when we’ve experienced his presence. We deliver love right back, unabashed, on our knees. When others see us as absurd and alarming in such praise of God, then what? That's the difference between conversation with God and theory. A divine conversation can continue. A theory challenged must deal with doubt. We turn to God, or we turn to our theory.

Here’s the story of a man thousands of years ago without the internet, news reports, libraries, or any of the technological aids to daily life.

Abraham did not doubt God's promise in unbelief;
rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God
and was fully convinced that what God had promised
he was also able to do.
(Romans 4:20-21)

That’s where I need to get to, a little bit more every day. I can taste being fully convinced already. Can’t you?

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